Most "normal" GTK apps use X fonts exclusively, because what
they demand of them is minimal. For example, most programs use fonts
in a "write-only" way. A font is selected by the user and the program
draws to the screen with it. We need much more detailed information
to get decent on-screen and printed results. AbiWord needs to
know detailed measurements of the glyphs in each font (called metrics),
and X just doesn't give these to us in any useful form. Also,
we need to know the dimensions of the fonts we're printing with.
X doesn't provide a way to get printable metrics for scalable fonts
(X is about computer graphics, not printing). X also does not allow us
to grab font data for embedding in printed text.
Our solution is to keep a copy of scalable Type 1 fonts locally,
and use the X metrics for screen drawing and the Type 1 metrics
for printing.
-- Shaw Terwilliger